Pointing to Jesus (Exodus 7)

Summary:

God renews His commission to Moses and Aaron: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, multiply My signs and wonders in Egypt…that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD” (vv. 3–5). Moses (80) and Aaron (83) confront Pharaoh again. 

Aaron’s staff becomes a serpent (tannin), Pharaoh’s magicians duplicate the sign by their secret arts, but Aaron’s serpent swallows theirs—yet Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

The first plague follows: at God’s command, Aaron stretches the staff over the Nile; all Egypt’s waters turn to blood, fish die, the river stinks, and Egyptians cannot drink. 

The magicians again replicate the sign on a smaller scale, so Pharaoh’s heart remains hard, exactly as God foretold. 

The plague lasts seven days.

Pointing to Jesus:

The entire plague cycle begins with the repeated, sovereign declaration: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…that I may multiply My signs and wonders…that you may know that I am the LORD.”

This is not an afterthought but the very purpose of the exodus: the display of God’s absolute dominion over proud rebels for the fame of His name and the salvation of His elect. 

Paul quotes Exodus 9:16 directly in Romans 9:17 to prove that God’s hardening of Pharaoh is an instance of His right to show mercy to whom He will and harden whom He will—all to make the riches of His glory known on the vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory (Rom 9:22–23).

That ultimate display of glory is Jesus Christ crucified. 

The same sovereign God who hardened Pharaoh to magnify His power in judgment now sovereignly softens elect sinners and hardens reprobate sinners so that the cross becomes either the fragrance of life to life or the aroma of death to death (2 Cor 2:15–16). 

The exodus plagues, beginning with blood, are judicial acts that proclaim: only the Lord saves, and He saves by blood—either the blood of judgment on His enemies or the blood of the Lamb on His people. 

Christ is the final, perfect exodus: the true Passover Lamb whose blood causes the destroying angel to pass over, and whose triumphant resurrection swallows up every counterfeit power of Satan (Col 2:15; Rev 12:11).

Reflection:

Exodus 7 is a chapter for discouraged witnesses. 

Moses and Aaron obey perfectly, perform undeniable miracles, yet Pharaoh’s heart only grows harder and the suffering of God’s people temporarily increases. 

This is the normal pattern of gospel ministry.

We proclaim Christ; demonic powers imitate and counterfeit; many hearts we expect to soften instead harden; opposition intensifies. 

Yet the chapter teaches us to keep our eyes not on immediate fruit but on the unbreakable divine purpose: “that they may know that I am the LORD.”

Our calling is not to produce results but to be faithful instruments while the sovereign Lord multiplies His signs exactly as He decreed before the foundation of the world. 

When our staffs are swallowed up by opposition or when the waters we strike only seem to turn to more bloody, we remember: the serpent has already been crushed, the true Blood has already been shed, and every hardened heart only serves to make the glory of the coming final exodus more magnificent. 

We walk on in obedience, not because Egypt repents, but because Yahweh will be known through the earth.